nbc's chief foreign correspondent richard engel and his crew disappeared thursday after crossing into northwest syria from turkey. this morning he told the "today" show how they were all finally set free. >> at the end of this, we were being moved to yet another location in the later around 11:00 last night local time and as we were moving along the road the kidnappers came across a rebel checkpoint, something they hadn't expected so we were in the back of what you'd think of as a mini van and as we were driving along the road the kidnappers saw this checkpoint, started a gun fight with it. two of the kidnappers were killed, they climbed out of the vehicle and the rebels took us. we spent the night with them, we didn't get much sleep. >> ivan watson joins us from istanbul, turkey. ivan, who were these kidnappers and why did they take me see journalists? >> well, according to richard engel's statement this was a shabiha pro-government militia made up of shiite muslims and it gives you a sense of how chaotic the situation has gotten inside syria. we were hearing about clashes between ri